[The Hundred Schools of Thought] [Evil Cults Flourish] [Confucian Cultivation] Beneath a glorious age, dark currents surge. Heretical doctrines from beyond the borders spread like poisonous vines, manipulating people's hearts and corroding the realm, while the world's order teeters on the brink of collapse. Though the orthodox faiths fight back with all their might, their teachings are lofty and often constrained by formality, leaving them unable to address the people's most immediate hardships. Evil threatens to spread like wildfire.
In this dark hour, Lu Yuanyun, already a believer in the gods, makes the unexpected choice to join the most fallen and diminished institution, the Confucian Academy, which has only a single surviving line of succession. As its sole disciple, he becomes the last heir to this deserted school. Now, at barely twenty, he has become the youngest professor in the Confucian Academy's history.
Is his name Lu Yuanyun, or is it merely an alias? He knows that benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, confined to old books, cannot cleanse the evil that has spread across the world. So he refuses to limit himself to a single school. Though grounded in Confucianism, he draws on the strengths of the Hundred Schools and brings them together: the Legalists' strict discipline, the Mohists' universal love and opposition to aggression, the strategists' use of both orthodox and unorthodox tactics, the Yin-Yang school's mastery of change... He puts them all to use.
His ambition is not merely to revive Confucianism, but to restore the soul of Chinese civilization and unite the wisdom of the sages to fight the evil that clouds people's minds. He plans to open the academy's doors wide to people of talent from across the realm, regardless of their background, asking only that they remain true to their hearts.
"Teach according to one's aptitude, and educate without discrimination": he will put this ancient maxim into practice. At this new Confucian Academy, he will teach far more than a single doctrine. Among his future disciples, some may embrace Confucian benevolence, uphold the middle way, and cultivate themselves and their families; others may follow the Legalists' iron laws, clarify the law, strengthen the government, and bring order to the world; still others may study the Mohists' ingenuity, practice universal love, honor the worthy, and defend the people...
